The Highest Place by Jennifer Juniper
October 3rd, 2008 6:33 AMOn Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 10:07 PM SFØ time, I posted my praxis for The Arcane Ensconsed. At some point after that, but before now, the player emma ungoldman cast two (2) votes in favor of it. Silently.
Thus, at the time of this writing, I share the high-score position for The Arcane Ensconsed with Mr Everyday's wonderful, arcane and ciphertext-drama completion.
I would like to associate emma ungoldman as a collaborator, because it was her votes that allowed me to reach these exalted heights, but I don't know how, really, or if it's appropriate.
Note: The following proof pictures show MNØ time, which is +2 hours from SFØ time.
highscore.jpg
Oh the thrilling thrillyness of it.
thehighestplace.jpg
Somebody get me an oxygen tank thingie like they use on Everest!
sharingthepinnacle.jpg
It would be scary to be up here all by myself. I am glad to have company. I'm gonna head down, now, though. Seen enough.
1 vote(s)
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meta, flagsarefree19 comment(s)
It conforms to the letter but not the spirit of the task. It's an experiment about ways to play the game. I've been exploring the past of SFØ, and I know pretty well what high-score praxes look like. And I know they don't look like this. Nonetheless, this completion abides by the task's instructions. And plus and also my praxis came with a warning. And plus and also, it did occur to me that this completion might offend long-time players who have fought long and hard battles for high-score positions. Not my intention to make fun of the game. I am loving the game.
I won't be flagging it - You name checked me, so I'm happy ;-) - but of course that's the other part of playing the game... All it takes is five people to disagree with your interpretation and it's blackballed... I hope it doesn't happen, we need all the votes we can get in the vote economy atm, but still...
Dear Juniper,
Boo. You got 2 points to make your completion tie for top out of three completions. Poor form. Your height isn't very high.
I won't flag you, but I'm going to say "booooooo." Why include this among your game-style experiments? Seriously, people do the least possible work all the damn time. This isn't some kind of clever innovation on your part. It's just sort of lame. I expected something completely different from you, after reading the sf0mail you sent MN0, this is just... unapologetically lazy and boring. Booooooooooo. I encourage you to "experiment with another way" to complete this task.
Love,
Inky
Dear Ink Tea:
Thank you for your comments. I agree with all of them. I am appreciative of receiving encouragement and suggestions from such a senior player and my intentions are to find the spirit - and not just the letter - of the sfØ tasks I complete.
Part of playing any new game is learning the rules and exploring boundaries, and this completion illustrates that part of my process. Toddlers, dogs and adults frequently intentionally push boundaries and limits - why can't I? I would imagine that "lame" and "unapologetically lazy and boring" completions are frequently a part of early days in a new era?
Plus and also, receiving the High Score badge for the first time in a game one admires tremendously - and in a game in which one doubts achieving the distinction - is actually not as low a height as you might imagine. Even if it is for receiving two votes. It was an extreme and unexpected pleasure to receive any votes at all.
I did some exploring around the completed tasks -- sorting them in different ways. In the history of this game, plenty of people have completed a task by doing something simple. They got their points, got no votes, but got no "meh" or "boooooooo" comments either. Why is this different? Is it because I am perceived to be making fun of The Score?
I guess I was sort of hoping, a little, that this completion might make people remember their own first, real, High Score. With fondness.
I remain, as always, a brave and hopeful nøøb,*
Ms. J. "Jennifer" Juniper
*susy derkins said it in the discourse regarding Team INFØ but I don't know how to link directly to her comment.
Dear Juniper,
Here's the thing. You're going to have the Fleur de Lis taken from you. That High Score is temporary, and you know it. Insofar as doubting your capabilities to get a High Score badge? Don't underestimate yourself. Don't put your bar so low, and you may surprise yourself. That fleur will mean more when you've worked for it. And the "booo" you got? I've certainly, certainly, certainly encouraged players to strive for more in the past. Don't think of it as being on par with a flag. It's really encouragement.
But you're right. You CAN play this way, and I won't stop you. Go for it! Be as Mediocre as you can be!
Love,
Inky
I for one encourage mediocrity - in moderation.
There's a saying I've heard that goes something like "Don't let the best become the enemy of the good - but don't let the good become the enemy of the better." To put it in SF0 terms: just because you don't feel prepared to build Doorhenge doesn't mean you shouldn't install a door somewhere. But the fact that you're allowing yourself not to go beyond your abilities doesn't mean you shouldn't fulfill the task in the best way you can within whatever limits you feel apply.
I agree with Ink Tea and Lincoln that your height is unimpressive, but like Inky I also don't think that makes it worth a flag - while you got to the highest place of something fairly mild, you did get to a high place.
On the other hand, I've long been of the opinion that a proper task completion is something you set out to do, rather than something that simply happens. Sometimes you stumble into an opportunity (which has come to sometimes be called "surpraxis"), but you still have to actively seize that opportunity.
I am at present neither employed nor a student and thus fulfill the description of Everyday Life daily. And at the moment I'm sitting on the highest part of my chair (it doesn't have a back). But neither of these represents an act of drive on my part, so neither of them is properly a completion.
As a sucker for the deeply personal praxes, I like seeing what your drive can lead to. And I want to see more of it. So please - keep it up! Don't let us not being fond of this completion scare you away from SF0.
To Ink Tea: I love you now because "booooo" is an encouragement! And I don't think of disapproval/encouragement as on par with a flag. A flag is a flag is a flag. Is a flag. Strive for more - oh def. Be mediocre - at least sometimes - oh def.
To teucer: set out to do it - yep. "Surpraxis" - yay. The drive and where it leads - yah, that's what I'm curious about too.
To everyone: I am a huge fan of meta, so the comments on this dumbo completion of mine have made a lovely warm spot inside me. Thank you for taking the time to share some of how you play the game. It is so totally totally the opposite of flags that, well, it is the opposite. Plus and also, I figured out some new little trickery with image editing to complete this, so it wasn't a total waste for me.
Also to everyone: Would it make it more or less lame - or have a null effect - for me to add emma ungoldman as a collaborator? This is an honest and serious question about gameplay etiquette. We didn't plan to collaborate, but my lame-ø completion wouldn't have been possible without her.
haha, it might bump me up to level 2 but I think I'll pass on grounds of unintentionality. but I would love to collaborate on something For Reals in the future!
So get out of my brain! :-) I was actually thinking that, and so we shall look for a task that lends itself to cross-country tasking.
Dear Jen,
By now the Fleur is gone, which is sad in a way but also feels right about how eventually things get sorted out around here. (Hmm, perhaps it is going to work out fine at the end this Era too, even if we have less votes to pass around. But not in spite of, but because of the things it has triggered).
Anyway, that´s not really as important as the bravery implied in you taking the risk of stirring the wasp nest like this, to step in front of the Elder Players to suggest to be like dogs and toddlers here for a bit, yes, yes the score, respect, but the gameplay.
You did make me remember my own first High Score (who cares how real it was or how much it lasted? it was the best feeling in the world!), and for that I thank you.
As for the accusation of mediocrity, well, that is a really fickle one: people have praised the little tasks as the ones that keep the drive running, and it goes without saying how people here love wordplay and silliness.
I like how yourself + emma ungoldman + Mr Everyday got sorta unintentionally associated in this story: there is a common greatness about you, guys, IMHO. These are tough times to be a noob around here, I think. We are lucky to be sharing the floor with the lot of you.
Much løve,
susy derkins
As for the accusation of mediocrity, well, that is a really fickle one: people have praised the little tasks as the ones that keep the drive running, and it goes without saying how people here love wordplay and silliness.
Yep.
There's a difference, though, between the small mediocre tasks on the one hand and the small but elegant ones - but it is entirely in the eye of the beholder. More important, I think, is not the results of the small tasking but what you get out of it. We task for others to see, but we also do it for ourselves; praxis is good for the soul.
Humblyhumbly I thank you for the warm glowingness in my pectoral region. And let's keep playing!!
it does say of ANYTHING....but its only 15 points...the main rack of points is from the votes and ill have my completion for this task in sometime next week (hopefully). now, if the task hadnt read "get to the highest point of ANYTHING" that would be a different story, and i will actually include part of that in my praxis on my completion. and now i must vote for this completion solely because it has drawn so much attention and remarks.
Oh jeez!
Actually, Dopey, thank you, cos that is actually seriously ruh-eelly what I was at least partially trying to do: Flush out some new and considered conversation about completion and about praxis and about tasking for ourselves versus for others and about the drive and about the score. I have no doubt there will be E-to-the-P-to-the-I-to-the-C completions of this task and I await them with eager anticipation.
Again, everyone, thank you. It's so much more fun to be talked with than flagged.
next time, however, ill be looking forward to voting a full 5 for an amazing win by you. when a task comes out think about it for a whole day of different ways you can do it. when the ideas flow slower, theres something good waiting to come out.
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Meh.
I'll accept this when you get here. Or here. Or here. Or even here. This? Not so much.